Trip summary
This trip started with the idea of visiting my favourite country in all my travels, Syria. A friend, Dennis, had talked about having me over to visit him in his hometown of Teochew (Chaozhou) in China, and I managed to combine this into the trip. The cherry on top was a redemption ticket which allowed me to visit Palau for some diving on the way back to New Zealand.
Along the way, I make stops in Turkey, UAE and Taiwan to de-risk the plan in case of travel disruptions.
Today’s routing
Today’s routing to Teochew seemed a little silly, flying Air China via Beijing. It would seem more logical to fly to Hong Kong on a staff standby ticket and cross the border by train straight to Teochew.
Unfortunately, the late flight arrival into Hong Kong would require us to overnight before taking the high-speed train. The cost of the staff ticket, hotel and train added up to a little less than the Air China commercial ticket.
So, here we are, doing a 14h flight today to Bejing in the north of China, with a 5h connection before a 3h backtrack down to southern China.
Setting off
Swee and Chen, plus Kim had decided a couple of weeks ago to join me and Dennis on the first part of the trip to China.
With a departure of 2030, we left home before the rush hour to pick Dennis up at 1600 from his Mum’s place. We were invited in for a snack before continuing to the park-and-ride facility.
Getting dropped off at Auckland international airport, we experienced for the first time the long walk from the parking shuttle drop-off. While the “as the crow flies” distance wasn’t that long, anti-jaywalking barriers made the walk frustrating.
We go to the check-in queue after 1700 and met up with Swee and Chen. The desks opened a little earlier at 1720 and we were processed soon after.
The Air New Zealand ground staff were quite relaxed:
- They didn’t ask for my onward ticket despite being on a one-way ticket to China.
- Nor did they weigh my cabin bag which was a smidgen overweight as I was travelling without checked-baggage and needed to include a pair of shoes and a winter jacket.
Heading airside around 1800 was a breeze today. Unfortunately, entry into the lounge was a different story. With the Qantas lounge closed for renovation, our lounge was taking their passengers and we had to wait for about an hour before being granted access.
Flying off
The Air China B787-9 was quite full and departed on time. Dennis and Kim were seated in the centre of the aircraft across the aisle from me, while Swee and Chen were behind in the aft cabin.
The crew remained seated till 32000 ft before serving dinner. The hot part of the meal had been made in China (judging from the markings) but not the remainder of the meal that had been preset on the tray (judging from the brand of products). The breakfast, served before landing, was totally from New Zealand though.
With a longer flight time than most of my other flights to Asia, it wasn’t a good idea to sleep straight away. I watched an episode of a Scottish luxury train journey before retiring.